I was living in Canada at the time, and served as an alternate on the
construction sector committee. I do remember rumours about Marchand wanting
to stop Canada's conversion in its tracks. But Trudeau stood firm - he had a
vision for Canada (a Canada that was not another USA), and metric conversion
was part of that. Trudeau did a lot of bad things in his time as Canadian
PM, but you cannot fault him for his vision of making Canada a great
international country. The sad part was when Mulroney became PM in 1984 (I
think that was the year), and dismantled everything about Canada's
metrication program, announcing that 'Canada was open for business' - i.e.
we can sell Canada out to the USA. Such a travesty.
John F-L
-----Original Message-----
From: c...@traditio.com
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2015 7:23 PM
To: USMA List Server
Subject: [USMA 57] U.S. Metric Act Drove Canada to Metric, if Not U.S.
I had never heard this story of how close Canada came to dumping metric.
Thank goodness Prime Minister Trudeau stood firm in 1976. Even Jimmy
Carter, unbeknownst to him, saved metric in Canada if not in the U.S.
Would that we had had a President as foresightful and courageous as
Trudeau!
Martin Morrison, "Metric Today" Columnist
============
From: Kamloops This Week
www.kamloopsthisweek.com/where-are-they-now-len-marchand-still-watching-political-scene/
"By 1976, Marchand was in cabinet as Minister of State for Small Business
and handed the task of bringing the metric system to Canada.
"I was really getting a lot of heat about metric, Marchand says. So, I
said to Pierre [Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada], Give me the word and I
can dismantle it. But, he said, We are a trading nation and one of the
last great nations in the world not going metric.
"At one time, Marchand says, he had a letter from then-U.S. president
Jimmy Carter confirming that country would also go metric."
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